'Meet the Press' transcript for May 18, 2008

MR. RUSSERT:  Mike Murphy, when you see a Democratic candidate like Barack Obama?

MR. MURPHY:  Mm-hmm.

MR. RUSSERT:  ...publicly professing his faith...

MR. MURPHY:  Mm-hmm.

MR. RUSSERT:  ...which is unusual for a Democratic candidate to be--to feel comfortable being able to do just that...

MR. MURPHY:  Right.

MR. RUSSERT:  ...does it cause you concern that he be able to connect with people, values voters?

MR. MURPHY:  It doesn't bother me kind of either way.  I, I respect his right to do it.  I'm kind of an Obama fan for a Republican.  I think he's an honest guy, and I think his reform instincts.  I think, as a practical politician, I look at it and I see Obama is trying to reach out to a voter group that, so far in the primaries, he's had great trouble with, and I understand why he's doing it.  I don't think he's being disingenuous.

I, I think that Obama's going to have a problem now, a challenge, moving from being an exceptional primary candidate to a general election candidate.  Now, he's got the environment working for him, but the question is, is he going to be able to connect in these swing states and not only in the South, I'm more worried from an Obama point of view if I were thinking that way, about the industrial Midwest, the states where he's had trouble in the primary against Hillary Clinton.  And I think embracing culturally conservative voters is a good strategy for him.  Whether or not, in the ultimate analysis, he'll line up on the policy issues they care about is a very open question, and I think it's still a point of great vulnerability for him in an election.

MR. SHRUM:  You, you don't have to be culturally conservative to be religious, and I think, and I agree with Governor Huckabee here...

GOV. HUCKABEE:  Can we hear that again?  You don't...

MR. SHRUM:  You don't have to be culturally--well, actually, I endorsed you for president.  I thought the Republicans should've nominated you, and I think maybe McCain should pick you for vice president.  And I mean that with all due respect.

MR. RUSSERT:  There goes that bid.

GOV. HUCKABEE:  Yeah, I'm toast.  The torpedo.

MR. SHRUM:  But, but I think it's, it's, it's interesting, and it would be an amazing development in American politics if we actually got rid of this church vs. anti-church division in our politics.  And I don't know how we got there. You know, when you put up that second Obama leaflet, it's very close to what John Kennedy said at the end of his inaugural address, "Here on earth, God's work must truly be our own." I don't think there's anything wrong with people talking about that.  I don't think you have to be religious to be elected president or that that should be a test.  The, the Constitution says it shouldn't be.  But if you are, you ought to tell people and we ought to get rid of this wall that's gone down American politics that Karl Rove built brick by brick by brick that said that if you believe, if you believe in God, if you believe in the church, you're a Republican.  You know what?  I don't think God has enrolled with either party.

MR. FORD:  Let me--I, I think Mike Murphy and, and Bob have raised two interesting points.  First, the polling and the numbers show that Barack Obama and John McCain are tied amongst white voters in this country, 44-44.  He leads Barack Obama some 48-40, these are the most recent Post/ABC polls, leads amongst independent voters, 48-41, and enjoys a seven point lead nationally. Now, those numbers will change, obviously.  It's just a snapshot of where we are.

But if you're Barack Obama, in light of all that has transpired, the Iranian comment from President Bush, which I thought--I would agree with you, the politics was very, very clumsy, we didn't touch on that very much--to the Jeremiah Wright issue, on three, the bitter comments, he still finds himself in a strong position.  He will have to alter and amend some of the things he's doing heading into the fall campaign, or he will have to amplify certain things in order to, to convince and persuade voters in big parts of the country that he's not only for them, but understands them.  But I have to say, he's starting off in a strong point.  I ran faith ads when I ran for the Senate.  I didn't win my Senate race.  We lost a close race.  But I think without them, we would've probably lost by a larger margin.  Because, unless you're able to connect with voters and show that indeed your faith is not only important but you understand where the morale and their faith and the nucleus and base comes from, it's harder to connect with certain voters.  And I think what Barack Obama's done here in Kentucky and is doing in other parts of the country is a smart thing.  I hope he's not afraid to talk about it, because the more Democrats are willing to share and be open about these issues, I think the more likely it is voters will say, "I'm going to listen to them on economic policy, national security and foreign policy issues."

MR. RUSSERT:  And that's St.  Albans training, choosing the hard right over the easy wrong.

MR. FORD:  Three chapels a week, Reverend...(unintelligible)...married me three weeks ago in the cathedral services, did.

MR. MURPHY:  Although, it, it is a point without minor controversy in the Democratic Party.  There's a hard secular wind--wing of the party that doesn't like any of this stuff.  And, and so this is...

MR. SHRUM:  As someone who's been accused of representing the hard secular wing of the Democratic Party, can I say--and I am a person myself of faith--can I say that I think there's absolutely nothing wrong with talking about your faith?  You ought to talk about your faith.  You ought not to say that the laws of the United States ought to enact any specific religious doctrine...

MR. MURPHY:  Well, yeah.

MR. SHRUM:  ...but you ought to talk about your values.  And, and, as I said before, I know the Republicans are in really bad shape this year, but God is not going to endorse the Republican Party.

MR. MURPHY:  Well, Bob, now we know you were wrongly accused.  You're clearly not of that wing.

MR. RUSSERT:  Tuesday, Oregon and Kentucky,

MR. MURPHY:  Yeah.

MR. RUSSERT:  ...two primaries.  Hillary Clinton still campaigning, not against Barack Obama.  She is now taking on another group of people, Washington insiders.  This was Hillary Clinton on the campaign stump on Saturday.

(Videotape)

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY):  And you know all those people on TV who are telling you and everybody else that this race is over and I should, you know, just be, you know, graceful and say, "Oh, it's over," even though I've won more votes, those are all people who have a job.  Those are all people who have health care.  Those are all people who can afford to send their kids to college.  Those are all people who can pay whatever is charged at the gas pump.  They're not the people I'm running to be a champion for.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  Where's the love?

MR. MURPHY:  You know, I hear...

MR. RUSSERT:  She must be talking about James Carville and Rahm Emanuel, because...

MR. SHRUM:  No, no.  She has a, she has a picture of you in her ad, and I think a picture of George Stephanopoulos.  Look, her problem...

MR. RUSSERT:  And Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews...

MR. SHRUM:  And if she wants to get mad, she ought to put a picture of Euclid up there, because the problem is the math doesn't add up.  No matter how you do this, this race is fundamentally over.  She's not going to be the Democratic nominee for president, Barack Obama is.  And we need to go into a process of healing.  And I want to say, on her behalf in the last week, the, the level of the rhetoric has come down, the level of the attacks have come down.  She's making an electability argument.  I think she really cares about the Democratic Party, and I hope that, in the end, whether she's mad at you or not, she can somehow or other help unite this party and move us toward victory in November.

MR. RUSSERT:  Sister Lucille taught me how to add, that's my only...

MR. MURPHY:  Well, I understand when her...

GOV. HUCKABEE:  You're going to take all the fun out of this, Bob.

MR. MURPHY:  ...when her campaign bus left that rally, one of the Maker's Mark barrels was missing, which is my poll of the real state of the Clinton campaign.  They're in it for fun now, not reality.

MR. RUSSERT:  But isn't there a long history of taking on the press when things are going bad?

MR. MURPHY:  Oh, yeah.  Rudy Giuliani ran the same ad with also of MEET THE PRESS pundit footage--in fact, I was in it and I bristle at that.  I live in LA and I'm a political consultant.  But any dying campaign, the last argument you have is, "Let's show those clowns in Washington us people don't believe the thing about me being dead in politics." A week later, they're dead in politics.

MR. RUSSERT:  In terms of uniting the Democratic Party, big discussion, debate about Hillary Clinton on the ticket with Barack Obama.  Michael Goodwin of The New York Daily news wrote this, headline:  "Barack's biggest problem" "How to get rid of her gently.  Offering Clinton his vice presidential slot isn't the answer.  She would undercut the essence of his message--a break from the partisan polarization Clinton embodies.  And Clinton, despite her appeal, probably doesn't put a single state in the Democratic column Obama couldn't win without her.  ...

"Even if they were to win together, an Obama-Clinton-Clinton administration would be a three-ring circus.  Obama would be double-teamed and maybe double-crossed by Bill and Hillary, both of whom would be looking to get back to the Oval Office.  Competing power centers would be a permanent condition in everything from foreign policy to health care."

Bob Beckel, who was Walter Mondale's campaign manager in 1984, writes this: "Does Obama want Hillary Clinton on the ticket?  Absolutely not.  Can he stop her if she wants it?  Probably not.  Why not?  Superdelegates are why not. ...

"Almost all superdelegates have had a long history with the Clintons.  ... Can you imagine how hard it was for most of these superdelegates to turn down the former president of the United States?" when he called and said, "Will you be for Hillary?" But if he calls them now, Bill Clinton says, "Will you be for her for VP?" Harold Ford, what happens?

MR. FORD:  Well, he probably won't, and hopefully he won't do that.  I think what the party has to consider is what will bring people together.  I think Bob's point is spot on.  I think Senator Obama, Senator Clinton should have conversations about bringing it together, about bringing their--not only their donors and fundraisers together, which has been talked about in newspapers this morning, but how do you bring your supporters together, how do you synchronize the message, how do you sure this coordination on that part?  I think Senator Obama's got to look at a whole range of things.  Some of them have been mentioned:  states that he wins, how he's able to take his message of hope and change and translate it into a real policy--a set of policy prescriptions when he becomes president.  Maybe Senator Clinton gives him that advantage.  I'd love to see him consider the fellow you had on the show a little earlier.  I'd love to see him consider even General Powell.  I'd love to see him think long and hard about Strickland and Rendell in the two industrial states.  He'll have time to do this, but I will say that those who fret about an Obama-Clinton-Clinton ticket, or what they may mean in the White House, I can assure you of one thing, you have to win to have those problems. And I'd rather have those problems then have John McCain as president.

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